Taiwan to get first LNG shipment from U.S. Sabine Pass: Reuters data

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

(Reuters) - With a tanker expected to arrive in Taiwan within a day, the United States will increase the number of countries that have received liquefied natural gas from the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana to at least 23 of the 35 that can accept the vessels.

The Cadiz Knutsen tanker will go to the Taichung LNG terminal in Taiwan with a load of supercooled gas from Cheniere Energy Inc’s Sabine, according to Reuters and Genscape shipping data.

The increase in U.S. deliveries coincides with the LNG market worries that Qatar, the world’s biggest LNG exporter, could experience problems delivering fuel to some countries after Saudi Arabia and a few other Arab nations severed diplomatic and transport links with the gulf sheikhdom after accusing the country of sponsoring terrorism.

In May, a record 18 vessels picked up cargoes from Sabine Pass. Those vessels, which had a total capacity of around 59.5 billion cubic feet, went to several countries, including Brazil, the UAE, Mexico, China, South Korea, Argentina and the first exports to the Netherlands and Poland.

Based on an average price of $3.12 per million British thermal units at the Henry Hub benchmark in Louisiana in May, the value of gas shipped from Sabine last month was about $192 million.

The first vessel left Sabine in February 2016. Each of the three liquefaction trains operating at Sabine can process about 0.65 billion cubic feet of gas per day. A fourth 0.65-bcfd train is expected to enter service during the second half of 2017.